Montgomery County Public Schools’ (MCPS) Peer Assessment and Review (PAR) teacher evaluation program was featured in a recent piece by Education columnist Michael Winerip entitled “Helping Teachers Help Themselves.”

The article points out that although the program has “worked beautifully” for the past 11 years, it has failed to garner dollars for MCPS from the federal Race to the Top program.

Winerip’s column states this is because MCPS former Superintendent Dr. Jerry Weast “…said he would not take the money because the grant required districts to include students’ state test results as a measure of teacher quality. ‘We don’t believe the tests are reliable,' he said. 'You don’t want to turn your system into a test factory.’ ”

Winerip went on to say that "Race to the Top aims to spur student growth by improving teacher quality, which is exactly what Montgomery County is doing. Sad to say, the district is getting the right results the wrong way.”